Never Sinking Into The Void Again Part 1

Posted on Sun Feb 17th, 2019 @ 1:00am by Commander Liam Snow & Commander Alexis Agrax (*)

Mission: Cosmos
Location: Deck 3 - Mess Hall
Timeline: MD28 07:30
1017 words - 2 OF Standard Post Measure

Alexis was up early. Her shift would not start for about an hour, but yet she stood in the busy mess hall. It hadn’t been this fall since she had joined the ship.

It had taken longer for the Nectar to wear off last night than she would ever admit, even now the dim ache of a hangover rippled behind her senses. Rest couldn't help her, It was like she had gone back in time before she had been caught out on her downward spiral.

All these things she could deal with later, right now she needed to find somewhere to sit and the only seat looked like it was by the one person she just didn’t want to sit with. “Can I sit here?” She asked lightly.

A shiver ran through his back as he heard that voice, the voice that he used to dream about but without knowing it's source. It almost felt like it was happening all over again but as his memory returned piece by piece his life as a pirate for hire began to fade. Glashes of marriage, loss and duty often littered his mind on more quiet moments but this was all too real as he turned to face the woman he loved. Used to love? Still loved? It was all confusing at this time.

"Sure, not like you've got much choice." He said as he waved his hand over the seat across from him. His tone was open and honest, he was trying.

That would be her luck, to find out that her husband could barely stand the sight of her now, never mind the touch. Rather than to jump to conclusions however, she decided to keep an outward appearance of calm and not being bothered by his reaction. She sat down and shrugged.

“I would have taken it to the security centre if you had said no.” She told him gently as she looked him over properly. They had been given the same ship but they hadn’t really spoken on the transport from Earth or when they had arrived here. Thankfully they had been given different quarters.

He realised how he'd sounded and sighed, "Sorry, ever since the memory recovery surgery I get headaches." He said pointing to the lights above and the people around, "That and I'm still getting used to being back."

He looked tired but still looked like he carried the weight of the galaxy on his shoulders. There was a new scar above his right eye leading through his eyebrow and over his eye socket, and that was only what you could see. Years in the dark, as a pirate amongst other things has left marks both seen and unseen on his body. When he looked at Alexis he couldn't help but send out a feeling of 'home', of calm. Like he didn't have to worry but he had no idea how the years had affected her and by the looks of things she'd had him dead and buried.

As she sat, watching the world drain of colour and warmth, a familiar, tinkling laugh gripped at her faculties, pulling her mind back from the never in which it was dwelling and into the here and now, into the mess, into her seat, into the various twitches and pangs which jolted along her nerves and forced her face into varying uncomfortable grimaces away from the laughter of an annoying cadet across the mess hall. “It is to be expected with what you went through. Not every day your wife knocks you out to drag you home.” She said softly. She had stood watching as the doctors had performed the surgeries wishing that she hadn’t had to knock him out. "What are you thinking?"

"Right now, that you still have a mean right hook..." He threw out there. Sometimes his old self shone through and it was happening more and more recently as days passed. The familiarity of Starfleet and no doubt proximity to his wife had helped.

Alexis found herself giggling. "Always was a security officer at heart Winter." She said without thinking as she sipped on her coffee. The wedding band that she hadn't worn for two years was visible on her finger as she looked at him. "And that isn't really an answer." She added.

"Hey it's my job to answer around questions remember?" He said with a small smile before looking down into his own coffee cup.

"Sometimes it doesn't feel real, being here. Like it's someone else's life that I've stolen, one that I don't deserve..." He continued taking a sip in between. "I remember the day I was 'lost' but it's fragmented, I remember the life I led on that other ship but still the feelings of being a better man were in me I just ignored them. So I sometimes think maybe we're all a misstep away from showing our true nature when our backs are against the wall." He noted her expression. "But I also thought the meatloaf was a bit dry..."

"I could just pry but I don't," Alexis wanted to say more but her commbadge suddenly burst to life with a request for her to head admittedly to the Security Centre. "No rest ever." She said gently looking at the uneaten toast and the man she was actually having a conversation with where neither of them was in tears.

"Ah you enjoy it, I've never seen a woman more suited to security than you Lexi. A long way from Utopia Planitia..." Liam responded seeing the emotion in her face across from him.

"Come over tonight and we can talk?" She asked quietly scared to ask and be rejected.

If that moment could have lasted forever I think he would have remained in it. "Alright, but I'm bringing bourbon. Hopefully the old saying of "Loose lips sink ships" isn't too true. I fancy never sinking into a void again..."

OFF::

Commander Alexis Agrax
Chief Of Security
USS Cosmos
(PNPC Gregnol)

Commander Liam Snow
Chief Intelligence Officer
USS Cosmos
(PNPC Carli)